Stolen Content: This is How It Looks

Happy Friday Evening! I’m excited to announce the Seasonal Footer here at BNOTP is all updated for the Fall Season. Linked in the footer at the bottom of the BNOTP home page, you’ll find posts about Autumn Decorating, Fall Dining,Halloween Crafts & Decor and Halloween Tablescapes. Once Halloween has passed, I’ll change the Halloween categories out to Thanksgiving related posts. Hope you are enjoying this easy access to many of the seasonal posts here at BNOTP. You’ll find even more under the category The Holiday Home, located at the top of the BNOTP homepage.

Recently someone left a comment saying they were having some trouble finding all the posts about the rooms I’ve decorated in my home. Those are located behind the category at the top of BNOTP called, My Nest.

The posts you’ll find there are currently in order from the oldest to the most recent. So, if you’re looking for a more recent post, like those about the home office I added this past year, once you click on the category, My Nest, scroll down to the bottom of that page and click on over to pages 3 & 4 where the links for the office posts can be found. Links to older posts will be on pages 1 and 2.

Search Box:
The other easy way to find a past post here at BNOTP is by clicking on “Search” at the top of the sidebar to the right, and typing in whatever topic you are searching for. Before I had all the categories set up, several folks e-mailed to let me know they found the post they needed using the search box. I’m so glad that’s working!

I know from your e-mails, many of you are using the category headings. That makes me so happy to hear since those babies were a lot of work to set up. If you aren’t taking advantage of the category system at the top of BNOTP, check it out. I think you’ll be tickled at how easy it is to find the post you want to read.

You ask and It Has Been Added! 🙂

Several folks asked for the ability to move from post to post, once they finish reading a post. I aim to please so I had my developer add that feature. Look for something that looks like this at the end of each post:

The Anatomy of a Stolen Post:

Recently I was reading an article somewhere (forgotten where now) and it said one way to check to see if your blog content has been stolen from your RSS feed and posted on another site, is to type your blog name into the search box at Google Blogs.

I had never heard of the Google Blogs search engine. I did a search for Between Naps on the Porch and the first page of results looked fine, but one or two pages over I found yet another “Blogger” blog loaded down with hundreds and hundreds of my posts.

As I looked in their archives, I saw around 100 of my posts published for each month. Not total, but per month! Again, these were posts stolen prior to when I began watermarking my pics. Watermarking is important, very important. So is not publishing all your content in full in an RSS feed. I’m learning all this the hard way these days.

What this evil site is doing is just recycling a bunch of my posts over and over. That’s bad because Google punishes sites and ranks them down when the Google bots that crawl the web find duplicate content on various sites. The evil site is currently showing all my old Halloween related posts each day.

A while back I wrote a post about this awful problem of so many Blogger’s having their posts/content stolen. I discussed some things bloggers could do to protect their content and where to report it if you are a victim of this growing crime. You can read that post here: Stop Scrapers from Stealing Your Content

When I published the post about ways to stop scrapers, I didn’t mention any of the scraping sites I had found by name. I didn’t want to send them any traffic. When I found this other site about a week or so ago, I took some screen shots so you could see how the typical stolen post looks on the typical evil, spam blog. Again, I’m not going to show their identifying info, but I will show you how they work the stolen content.

By the way, since I’ve reported the site to google, the owners of the evil site have drastically changed the appearance of their site, but unfortunately the site is still there. I’m still waiting for Google to shut it down…more on that in a sec.

Spam Sites and How They Look:

So, if you were to visit this spam Blogger site loaded down with stolen content, this is what you would see just below their plain, unexciting header…lots and lots and lots of Adsense ads. I have blurred them here because I don’t want to show the actual ads.

Next you’ll see the start of one of my stolen posts. I published this Halloween tablescape on October 20th of last year. It appeared on the evil blog on September 4th of this month. You’ll notice below my post title, they have inserted more Adsense ads.

As you continue scrolling down their site, you’ll see more Adsense ads all down the right side of my Halloween post. Many of you have asked how these evil sites earn money off of our stolen posts…this is how. In addition to the ads, often the posts are also filled with text links that when clicked, make the evil site income and take the reader to a site where something is being sold.

As you continue scrolling down there are lots more ads and then finally you’ll see the blog archive posted on the right hand side. As of September 4th, they had already published 42 posts for the month of September. Of those 42 posts, 29 of them are mine. 🙁 Each red arrow is pointing to a post that’s been taken from my RSS feed.

By the way, thanks so much to all of you who have signed up to receive the BNOTP feed and to those of you who continue to subscribe to it, even though I have had to shorten it. Your support is so appreciated. ♥

As we continue down through my stolen Halloween tablescape post, you’ll see more of my posts in their archives. Feeling sick, yet? I know I am. This is a little like having your home broken into and then visiting the thieves home and seeing your TV, DVD player and silver being used by the thief and there’s nothing you can do but fill out forms and wait.

And as we continue, we see more…and we’re still just looking at the current month, September 2012. Every single month of their blog is packed with my posts, stolen from my feed. I counted the posts they had stolen and posted in the month of August and 89 of them were mine.

One Way The Scrapers Try to Cover Their Tracks:
These evil people who are stealing blog posts, definitely know what they are doing is illegal and immoral. They try to cover their tracks by using software that strips out the links we’ve put in our posts that refer back to previous posts. For example, at the end of this Halloween tablescape post (see circled area in screen shot below) I listed and linked to some past Halloween tablescapes.

On the evil site, all those links I added are dead…they are no longer live links. They have been altered by their “post-stealing-software” to help hide their thievery. They do this because they are worried someone will click on the other links we’ve included, arrive at our blog and leave a comment telling the blogger their content is being stolen

Also, the live links will sometimes generate comments or ping backs (guess that’s what they are called) that notify the blogger someone is linking to their site. I’m not sure exactly how that works, but I have gotten a few in the past in the comments. I didn’t know what they were until recently. The area you see circled below used to be live links I had in the post to some of my previous posts/content. But they are no longer links. The evil site has made them useless to hide their dirty work of stealing content.

Where This All Stands Now:

So, here’s what I’ve done so far. I completed the DMCA form requesting all this content be removed. I don’t want to take time in this post to explain what that is, but you can read about completing a DMCA form and hear Matt Cutts explain how to fight these sites in this past post about stopping scrapers: Stop Scrapers from Stealing Your Content

I also reported the site as a Spam site to the place Matt Cutts states you should do that. Again, just listen to the video in that past post for that info.

When I first competed the DMCA to report this site, I gave Google the URLs to 5 posts the evil site had stolen. I gave them the links on the evil site and the links on my site where the real post is located. I also explained in great detail that the site had hundreds and hundreds of my posts/content on their site…all stolen from my RSS feed and that the 5 examples were just a drop in the bucket. The last time I found a site doing this, Google removed the site quickly within 3-4 days.

They responded by removing those 5 posts, but nothing else and they allowed the site to remain on the Blogger platform. It’s still going strong and they even published another one of my posts just this morning.

I e-mailed Google back and once again explained there are hundreds and hundreds of my posts on the evil site. I got back an e-mail asking that I provide them the exact URL address for every single post that’s been stolen.

So, how long do you think it’s going to take me to open up each post and copy/paste the URL/address for that post to an email when there are 89 of my posts just in the month of August on the spam site? I can tell you it took a couple of hours last night to just get through the months of August and September 13th of this month. I e-mailed Google the 118 URLs for August and September. Now, I’m waiting to see if they are going to make me list all the URLs for every single month. What a nightmare. Sucks the creative life right out of you dealing with this stuff.

I still haven’t heard back on the Spam report I filled out. Wonder how long that will take or if I will hear back. I read somewhere that nothing ever comes of those…hopefully that is incorrect. Will keep you posted how it goes. Now I’m just wondering how many more of these evil content-stealing sites are out there.

I shudder to think.

Update: Google replied back asking for the URLs on my site to all the original content. So now, in addition to sending them the URLs of the 118 stolen posts that are appearing on the spam blog in August and September, I’m supposed to send them the URL’s for the legitimate posts on my blog. And this is only for August and September…there are still 5 more months of stolen content on the spam blog.

The first time I reported a Spam blog, Google took them off line within days…not this time. I don’t know if it just depends on who you get or what? I’ve filed a whole new DMCA report, hoping to get someone who actually cares this time. They may be overrun with reports now that so many folks are becoming aware of this issue.

Final Update: The spam blog is gone…Google finally removed it today, 09-20-2012. It was torture this past week watching them continue publishing all my stolen posts on their site this week. If you are a blogger and you find your work on a spam site, don’t give up. Persevere and get it removed. Watermark every photo and think twice about putting your full post out there in your RSS feed.

So sorry you are having to work so hard to prove your ownership of your blog posts! I can’t understand why anyone would want to visit a site that has to many ads and dead links too. Too bad there isn’t someway to permanently mark your pictures so that they would always link back to your blog or couldn’t be moved from your blog without your permission. ( I don’t know the right terminology for that.) Maybe technology will catch up with their thievery but, by then, they will have probably found some other way to snatch content. I will still be enjoying your real content on your real blog! Thanks for all the work you are doing!

Thanks, Sondra! The good thing is 99.9% of the stealing is done via the RSS feed, so that part is easy to fix by using a truncated feed. That’s why so many bloggers have moved the truncated feed. It just takes way too many hours to get your content off a site once it’s stolen. Better to prevent it before it happens. If this wasn’t a Blogger site, I’d have to hire an attorney to get it done.

That is terrible you are still going through this, its a shame that Blogger isn’t removing the offending sites!! You must be exhausted and I see how this can suck the creative energy right out of you!!! I applaud your tenacity and your hard work. I enjoy all your posts and parties……I would join in but can’t figure out how to get a button on my blog!!! Get some rest now……

Cleo you are so sweet. You don’t have to post a button on your blog to join in…just include a sentence in your post that says your joining XYZ party and add a link back to the party…that’s it. If you have any trouble with the link, let me know and I’m happy to help. Just email me at betweennapsontheporchatgmaildotcom.

So sorry that your creative and precious moments are taken up fighting for your rightful belongings (your posts). This is a crazy world we live in – but I believe the deeds of the evil site will catch up with them. Meanwhile, you are busy spreading sunshine and making the world a more beautiful place.

You certainly are a trooper! I would be so heart-broken with all you and others are going through–I don’t think I could keep on “keeping on.” Your originality and research shine through in all you do –thanks for continuing to trudge through the paperwork and still keep preparing and sharing new things. I hope they fnd a way to catch all these nasty folks but as someone said above, bad people will just find new ways to steal from good, hard-working folks. Thanks for sharing your heart and soul with us–we do so appreciate you!
Di

I am so sorry this has happened to you and others that I follow. I have a low tolerance for people that steal
and even less tolerance for those that steal someone’s hard work. Here’s hoping this matter is resolved soon.
I so enjoy Mondays, reading everyone’s post on your Metamorphosis Monday. Here’s to you Susan and to all the other fantastic bloggers out there.

I just hate a thief! I’m so sorry you and so many bloggers are having your hard work stolen from you and posted elsewhere! When I first received the truncated e-mails, I was a little perturbed – until I found out why! I don’t mind an extra click in order to prevent thiefs! I love your blog and so many others. Keep up the wonderful work! {{{HUGS}}}

I hope the evil sites are taken down soon and it is a shame you have to spend so much of your time dealing with that.
I don’t know how you manage to keep putting new, interesting things up on BNOTP, while having to take care of the stolen material. Please don’t get discouraged & just remember how much your followers enjoy your wonderful tablescapes, the make-overs and all of the other things that you blog about. BNOTP is truly an A+ blog!

Good grief, Susan, I can understand why you feel violated! Why aren’t the people behind sites like that going to jail?! If you had an author whose book was plagiarized, there would likely be jail time involved, or at least a lawsuit. Seems like the laws haven’t really caught up with technology, though I understand how impossile it would be to police the www. Go get’em, Susan- I hope you teach them a lesson or two!

Wow! This is such a shame, these pirating sites should be closed down. 89 posts-that is just crazy, I am so sorry you have had to spend more time fighting evil than crating beauty. Please know that we all appreciate your work , especially your creativity and inspiration.

I am SHOCKED that people would do that — and very disappointed. All your hard work going to someone else’s benefit. I hope Google shuts that site down SOON and they are fined so they won’t do that again. Good luck and we are all routing for you! :o)

Hi Susan, I’m so sorry to see you are still having to deal with these pirates. Just wanted to send along a little encouraging note to help keep you strong so they don’t also steal any of your beautifully creative energy. {{Hugs}}

Hi Susan! The only good news I can pass along on this front is that I have recently been seeing lots of articles from Rolling Stone Magazine reposted on a blog — word for word, same font, etc., also with the AdSense ads… and I am only thinking this is good news because Rolling Stone knows, and if a powerful professional publication with deep pockets and a strong legal team can get on Google about this issue maybe Google will respond with a policy helpful to all bloggers. Or something will happen with new laws easier and quicker to enforce. In the meantime, thank you for keeping us entertained and enlightened! Linda

Like I told you before the FBI and CIA need your skills! I can’t believe you have to list everything, but I’m not shocked that you have to list every blog entry stolen. Maybe if Google were a regular follower of BNOTP they wouldn’t have trouble knowing your signature style! I’m in sick for you having to deal with this stealing and Google, but obviously you are making a difference for everyone and shutting the evil sites down. I’ve noticed your article being referenced by several bloggers that I follow and they are making moves to keep their blogs protected based on your information. I would help you if I could!

Your page looks beautiful with the fall colors. Thank you for making it easy to find my favorite ideas for the fall season.

Susan, I’m so sorry to read about the piracy on the net. Evil people have always made things so hard for honest hardworking people like you. I hope Google will do something quickly to protect your wonderfully creative work. I love your blog because your pictures and writing are so professional and very inspirational. My husband knows to give up the computer on Mondays and Thursdays to me because I look forward so much to see what you have created. Your blog , decorating, and your tablescapes are the best of the best. I hope you keep doing what you do because if you decided to give up because of the thieves, there would be a lot of women out there that would miss you terribly. We look up to you because you have definitely raised the bar on being creative.

I am just so upset that this keeps happening to you! You would think after reporting to Google before and getting the evil site taken down, that you would be taken at your word, and not have to go through giving each link, to follow up.
I’ve bookmarked this post, since I’m still in the learning stages of starting my own blog. Thanks so much for the great information!

Susan, I have been reading about your post being stolen. It is truly sickening.
My husband owned a pharmacy for twenty-five years. It was broken into more than once. It is a feeling of invasion you can’t describe when you walk in and find the mess that’s been left behind and calculated your losses. I hope so much that your hard work will pay off for yourself and other bloggers.
Your blog was the first one I marked as a favorite and rarely miss your posts. You are creative and talented and I appreciate your hard work. God bless.

Susan,I am so sorry to hear that you are still having problems with the stolen posts.I hope that it gets resolved very soon.I don’t really know how this all works but what about if you contacted the sponsors that they are being paid by?Could they possibly help?I wouldn’t think that they would approve of the methods in which these people are making their money if their blogs are someone elses work.Like I said I do not know how this works but thought I would ask.Like the previous person commented I truly hope the nightmare ends and it ends soon.They are taking your time in which you could be decorating and tablescaping and it hurts us all.Many hugs coming your way.

Thanks Vicki. You are a sweetheart to try to help and I so appreciate your suggestions. The spam sites I’ve seen just have Adsense ads on them. They always look totally spammy and never have a means to contact them, so I guess that’s why they never have any sponsors…just Google Adsense ads. Anyone can sign up for Adsense so that’s why they use their ads. I did contact Adsense as well and I notice now they don’t have any Adsense ads, now. I think Adsense removed those because they don’t want to be associated with anyone who is stealing content.

I don’t have a blog but I am an avid blog reader and sometimes I think I’ve ended up on one of these evil sites. Maybe that’s what happened when a link didn’t work, or “here” didn’t work, or the site looked funny (all those ads). Is there anything a reader can do if and when we stumble upon one of those sites? This is just so ridiculous but seems to be the way of the world. Who woulda thought it when blogs came along? I am so sorry for you and other bloggers.

Barbara, if you find one, you’ll know it because you’ll see Adsense ads at the top and in the sidebar, and text links in the posts, primarily. Usually there isn’t any contact info for them, no Facebook page or Twitter page because they aren’t trying to get to know their readers…they are just trying to make money off their stolen content.

Susan, brave women fought for the right to vote and you are one brave woman fighting against these thieves. With everything you have to put out for your blog, it would be so easy for you to just give up. It is mentally exhausting *fighting the good fight* constantly when all you want to do is to bring some pleasure into our lives. It is easy for me to say not having a blog, but please do not give up, so many of us really, really, enjoy your blog. There have not been many *Naps* on the *Porch* for you lately, but know, I for one, am so appreciative of everything you share with us.
I am astounded how these people learned to do this in the first place. In every walk in life, there is someone out there to make the sunshine go away.

Hi Susan,
sorry for all that. And thank you for the tutorial how to find stolen content. I will have a look to that, too. The good in the bad is: They steel only great content. So its at least a compliment for your blog when they stole so many content. But is of course annoying. I found once all photos of one of my tutorials on another homepage. Google removed them but removed mine, too. Good luck, I had the photos still in my memory card. I wish you luck with this trouble. Your blog is peerless.
Best greetings, Johanna

Susan, I am sorry and angry that this is happening to you and your wonderful blog! I hope it is resolved soon and doesn’t distract any of your creative talent. I enjoy your site and have to admit that I have “stolen” a couple of your ideas for my table (I always give you the credit!). While looking at some of your older tables I discovered we have a couple of the same china and flatware patterns. Your tables give me inspiration to be myself with my tables and to grow as a hostess. Thanks for that encouragement!

Love the changes to your site, Susan! And that you’re so responsive to your readers. Us fellow bloggers are 100% behind all your efforts to stop the sites scraping content… thank you for sharing the details, the how-tos, the angst. We <3 you!

Susan your blog is just fabulous. What a wonderful experience visiting here…I love an organized blog! You have got me thinking about more ways to improve mine. Thank you for the inspiration and generous information! I’ll be back tomorrow for Met Monday.

You’ve always had such a wonderful blog! I’ve been a follower ever since I began blogging in 2008. I’m so sorry these evil idiots are stealing YOUR words, YOUR pictures, YOUR stuff! As you said, it’s like stealing items from your home, and then seeing them in another house. I hope the ones who are supposed to be monitoring and fixing these problems come through for you, and fast!

This is my second attempt to reply, Susan. I type quickly and without precision, so I frequently hit a key that sends my message into oblivion with no way of getting it back because I am merrily on my way to a new site somewhere on the web. (Sighhhh) I am not a blogger in the true sense. I have a sort of family-related diary to let my friends know what I’ve been up to so that I don’t have to write the same boring message multiple times; but, I am a true fan of your gorgeous work, and I am totally irked at the piracy you’ve been enduring. I am sick that Google is giving you such a runaround. It should be obvious that what you are saying is so. All they have to do is go look. It sounds like they are giving you busy work so you will back off and not bug them. BUG THEM ANYWAY! Stay on their case. The pirates load YOUR work with their silly ads so that they can make money with NO work of their own other than stealing your pages. I would call it white-collar crime, but they probably don’t even wear shirts. I am imagining grimy tee shirts with pizza boxes and beer cans all around their computers. But I am an old broad, and I can get crotchety from time to time. LOL I just want to thank you for all the joy you have brought to my life. When I don’t have the funds or the time to create the glorious things you have, it feeds my soul to enjoy what YOU have done. So I want to thank you and offer any support I can give if you need other voices to speak up to Google in your behalf. I’m sure all of your fans would do the same. Just let us know!

Love the changes to your blog. Makes navigating so much easier and being able to find past posts (say that ten times really fast!!) easier as well. Unfortunately, I may be spending too much time here now! 😉 LOL
So sad to hear that your posts are being stolen. I love what you have to share and knowing that others are trying to take credit for all your hard work does make one sick to the stomach. 🙁 And having to spend all that extra time and effort to prove that it is being done is sad as well. But, perserverance does pay so keep at it!! Thank you for sharing how to recognize piracy. I had no idea.

Susan, yes it does make me sick. Sick for all you have had stolen, have yet to deal with to get resolution and sick to think of how many of those sites I’ve been to because of looking for something through a Google search! I never knew that was why those links didn’t work or why the blogs were so plain looking. (I thought maybe the bloggers were just technically inept like me but it is just the opposite…they are cunning electronic thieves!)

Would it help if some of us each took some of those months of stolen content off the list you have to trudge through to find those urls for you and just sent the info to you in an e-mail? If bunch of us got together to help it’d make filing your whatchamacallit form quicker wouldn’t it?

Susan, that is so terrible for your hard work to be stolen. It is indeed a violation of the spirit, soul, body, and I cannot even put into words what all I feel! It is terrible that YOU are having to do all this hard work to stop these vandals. They should be brought to justice. I am glad that I haven’t run across one but if I do or did, I would certaily let you know immediately. wishing you all the best in blogging land.

Bummer dudette! Sometimes we wonder why we try… your blog though is making you money. But see if your blog was boring like mine the content would not likely get stolen. Hang in there hopefully Google will come to their senses soon.

Technology is such a wonderful thing to have available but it opens us up to all kinds of nastiness. This is an example. So are our cell phones and our email. It’s a shame that we have to experience things like this. Your blog is one of and has been one of my favorites for years!

I wonder if ‘sabotaging’ a few posts would curb the theft, or at the very least, alert viewers of those sites that they are not reading the original.
Perhaps insert a line or two here and there in a post stating: ‘this is the content of BNotP’.

I am spittin’ nails right about now. It makes me SO mad that lazy bums spend their time stealing other people’s intellectual and other property instead of doing something worthwhile. I just went over to the Google Blog Search place and found at least one site using my stuff in a video…totally unauthorized! I’m not sure what an RSS is or a lot of the terminology used re: blogs, so I’m going to have to get with a computer geek pal of mine to figure out how to make this go away. I watermark in ginormous letters across my photos and include tons of links that go to other places on my site, but I didn’t always do this. I am going back in and trying to watermark all the photos from the early months of when I started blogging, but it’s a heck of a lot of work. I’d rather be doing anything BUT that, but these stupid people have forced my hand. Ugh!!!!!!!!! I’m with Posie who commented just above me. I think I’ll start adding little lines here and there that continuously remind the reader whose work this is. It may not stop the thievin’ hyenas, but it’ll sure slow ’em down and waste more of THEIR time like they’re forcing me to do!!!

Thanks, Gwen. I visited the site this morning and they were posting my Christmas porch…sooo frustrating to see it going on and on. So glad Google finally acted today and got rid of them. I’m hoping if they start back up again, they can’t recycle all those posts again and just put them all on a new spam blog. I would imagine Google tries to ban folks like that from using the Blogger platform, but they probably have ways of getting around it.

I just wanted to thank you for posting this! I just started my own blog and everyone kept telling me about scraper sites, but no one would tell me how you could tell if it was happening to you. I will start changing things on my blog from now on to keep this from happening to me. So sorry it happened to you. Thanks so much for sharing!

Great post! I am a virtual (ha-ha, that’s punny) nobody in the world of blogging, but it’s fun and I love it. I only have, I think, 10 posts, but the past couple of posts I have watermarked my photos. I need to go back and watermark my previous posts. I am going to truncate my feeds for my non-existent followers because, even though nobody is there yet, scrappers are! Love your blog – I follow on bloglovin.

I love your blog so very much, and so appreciate your generosity for sharing on how to avoid having content stolen. I am getting ready to launch my blog, and your help will assist me greatly while avoiding at least in large part, the frustration and anger you must surely feel. I can only hope that I can repay the favor to you and so many of the bloggers who so willingly share ideas, shortcuts, their lives and talents so unselfishly. Thankyou!

I’m sorry your posts got stolen — I wondered how you could tell that they were stealing your content from the RSS Feed? Is that the only way? I would think that someone could copy and paste from your website too?

I don’t comment very often – in fact posts pile up for months on end in my Reader before I read them but I always love your posts!

Cassie, I’m sure there are more out there that are posting those first 3 years of my blog content before I wised-up and truncated the feed. It’s hard to know unless you stumble across the post or see a ping back in the comments or notice traffic coming from another blog and just happened to click the link. Normally the software they use to steal erases all the back links in a post though to hide the fact they are stealing content. You can read more about it in that post I linked to. I go into a good bit of detail in the scraper post. I think Google is really working hard to find ways to identify the correct author of a post, but the bad guys are always coming up with new techniques to steal. Oh, to answer your question, yep someone could copy and paste, but that takes a lot more time than just using evil software to grab the whole post from the RSS feed. So mostly that’s the way they steal when they are going for the whole post.